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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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In Our View: A Matter Of Perception

Vancouver council\u2019s pursuit of tax hike follows significant raise for city manager

The Columbian
Published:

The problem is one of perception, and it is a problem of their own making.

Sure, there is a compelling case for the Vancouver City Council to raise property taxes and utility rates. Sure, the budget crunch City Manager Eric Holmes is attempting to navigate can be troublesome. Sure, continuing growth has altered the financial demands on the city.

But while the numbers might call for increasing the burden on city residents, there remains that pesky problem of perception. Four months ago, you see, the city council handed Holmes a 17 percent raise, increasing his annual salary to $199,000. And because of that, cries of poverty now emanating from council members will fall upon deaf ears for many constituents.

Don’t misunderstand. A raise of $30,000 a year is a mere pittance for a city that has an annual general-fund budget of about $130 million. But its impact on the perception of the populace can be heavy. That is the problem facing council members as they hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall to discuss the proposed tax increases. The plan would raise the Vancouver property tax 1 percent — the maximum increase allowed under state law; it would raise both water and stormwater rates 5 percent in 2015 and 2016; and it would increase sewer rates 2 percent each of the next two years. The property tax proposal would amount to an increase of about $8 a year on a $200,000 home, according to Holmes; utility rates would go up about $2 a month each of the next two years.

The increases are small, and the justification is solid. According to Holmes, inflation and population growth are driving up costs to the city about 4 percent a year, outpacing the 2.4 percent revenue growth. In addition, Vancouver residents have the lowest utility rates among comparable cities in Washington and Oregon, at $62.68 per month; Portland residents, in contrast, pay $153.22 per month.

In addition, city officials have reacted responsibly to the economic downturn of the past decade, cutting where necessary in order to stay afloat in a devastating financial climate. After a high of 1,214 city employees in 2008, that number had been cut to 952 by this June.

Yet there remains a problem with perception. There is little doubt that Americans have grown averse to the mere mention of taxes, be it at the federal, state or local level. The result has been a crumbling infrastructure and an ideological purity that often leaves government officials in a no-win situation. George H.W. Bush once won a presidential election largely because he said, “Read my lips: No new taxes.” Once reality intervened, he ushered in a tax increase.

In the current climate, any tax increase must be accompanied by rock-solid reasoning and a rock-solid demonstration of fiscal responsibility. Even then, it will face an inordinate number of critics, and that has placed the Vancouver City Council in a difficult position. In June, the council approved a large pay increase for Holmes, praising the job he is doing and saying that the move would bring his salary in line with other city managers throughout the state and other executives in Clark County. They might have been correct, but they also created a perception they now must live up to.

Because of Holmes’ salary increase and because the Great Recession is still a reality for many Vancouver families, now is the wrong time for the city council to pursue a tax increase.

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